Cayin i5 Lossless Android DAP with AKM4490 DAC supporting 32/384 PCM + 64/128 DSD

[darveniza]

Andykong, TIDAL is a music streaming service similar to Spotify ( 320 kbps). What makes them different is that they have a subscription level that give you access to HiFi , It streams music differethe form of 16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files with a bitrate of 1411kbps. So for the purpose of really getting access to CD quality level music. Tidal is a great option ( library, access to new music,etc).
 
The TIDAL Android App is similar to Spotify App. 
 
a) Streaming works the same way between both platforms. No issues there. Except with i5 my limit is the DAP wi fi radio. I have found that I have to be within 25' of the router to keep a great connection
b) Offline works the same way, select what music you want to have offline and that is it. The main issues come on how the app and the player are communicating on what is main memory and what is the external memory. Both apps uner settings will show you options to were to store the offline content
 
I will explain:
 
-When I stream any music on Spotify and Tidal I do not see any real difference except the additional detail and depth of the Tidal HiFi stream. I am assuming that some buffering occurs but cannot tell where
 
-When I offline content to the external Micro SD ( Samsung EVO  80M/S read and 20 M/S write) , Spotify works great, Tidal does not as you have these blips. To be fair Pionerr and Onkyo had the same situation. The reason I think the blips are associated with the HiFi nature is that I had someone that only uses standard Tidal ( 320 kbps) and stores offline did not have blips. It is a very rough test but it gave me some clear indication
 
Now the last piece is that the TIDAL app will only detect micro SD card and not the main memory ( at least on my i5). If I want to have my HiFi Tidal offline on the main memory I need to extract the Micro SD. Restart the i5, go into the TIDAL app Settings/OFFLINE Destination/ Memory Card, after that it remains connected to the external Micro SD
 
Hopefully this answers the questions

 

[Andykong]

can I ask please few questions

1- can we root i5
2- does viper4andorid work on i5
3- how does i5 compare to fiio x7 in sound signature
4- do 3rd party players like neutron have access to the dac without down sampling

I believe viper4andorid is an app that require root access? We have several users posted questions about rooting i5 but no further information beyond that. Maybe this is related to Cayin's warranty policy: if you rooted your device, you'll lost your warranty, Cayin will not provide warranty or maintenance service unless the DAP can be restored to factory status before submit to us for service. I am not sure if we are the only company stipulating this kind of policy, but this probably will reduce the level of discussion on similar topic.

 

[Andykong]

 I was able to do all the mentioned above but noted a weak Wifi reception. The battery life was suffering typical ills from constant scanning. Worked though

Glad the i5 worked for your need during the tour audition.

Agree that the WiFi signal is weaker then most mobile phone when placed in the same environment. The potential explanations are:

(1) Due to limited production volume (when compare to mobile phone) and preference of market trend, i5 is over 90% CNC aluminum instead of plastic (required new mold), connectivity is certainly affected.

(2) The Wifi signal from i5 is deliberately tuned to a lower level in order to control interference with our audio circuitry. Mobile phone used an integrated chipset solution and wlll subject to less interference by design.

 

[GREYH0UND]

As anyone been able to compare this with an lg v20?

 

[Andykong]

So guys, for those of you who have owned the i5 for the past months, how's your experience and how do you feel owning the DAP?  I'm asking because of some concerns I have regarding my usage experience.  First, most of these things are just being me and how I wanted to use the device, and others are of the issues that have been widely known to us i5 users.  To be honest, if it weren't for the aesthetic beauty, the driving power, and its sound signature (which I love), I would have let this DAP go.  My main reasons would be the UI (speed, navigation, structure), the bug that makes songs begin some milliseconds from the actual start, low internal storage, and the single SD slot for external storage (I have quite a few DSD recordings and the rest are FLACs).


I know that it's too soon to tell what might this DAP become after a few more firmware updates.  Just like how the Opus#1 had its overhaul in usage experience after some major firmware updates including the OS update to Lollipop.  So for that, I have another reason why I should hold on to my i5 a bit longer.

I ordered the Opus#1 which is currently on sale in Amazon just so that I could have an alternate DAP for my i5, and also for more storage with its dual SD slot.  I just hope that Cayin does have some really nice things being cooked up for this awesome DAP (that would eliminate most of my concerns).  Because I really hate to eventually let this go.


Again, this is just being me and my personal preferences.  I respect everyone's opinion on how they use this great DAP.  Still hoping for the best.

the bug that makes songs begin some milliseconds from the actual start ..... yes, this is a registered bug. :confused_face:

But I have to be honest, some of the problems you have raised are not firmware related. UI speed will not be dramatically improved even after optimization, UI navigation and structure will probably remain unchanged, low internal storage and single slot external storage are issues that we won't be able to address through firmware modification, so I can't pretend that this is not a problem and we can hope for a better tomorrow. I sure want to keep my customer with our products as long as possible, but I can't do this by maintaining a false hope.

Cayin has a good record in follow up and improve our products, we might be a bit slow but we won't ignore our customers and come out with a i5v2 within months.

 

[Andykong]

When will the new firmware be ready? Heard it was coming out but then silence.

Don't have a date yet because we are still testing the beta version. We want to deliver the USB Audio out in next firmware, this is the top priority at the moment as the features is listed in the original product plan and we are very sorry for the delay already, so we are focusing on this feature right now.

 

[Andykong]

Hope one of the EQ presets will be sacrificed for a "EQ off" button in the future. It is a bit cumbersome to go to
the very Music settings page to switch off the EQ. For the time being I have adjusted one of the presets to a flat line.

That's a quick solution.

This is a new request, will mark it down as a user recommendation.

 

[pr0b3r]

the bug that makes songs begin some milliseconds from the actual start ..... yes, this is a registered bug.

But I have to be honest, some of the problems you have raised are not firmware related. UI speed will not be dramatically improved even after optimization, UI navigation and structure will probably remain unchanged, low internal storage and single slot external storage are issues that we won't be able to address through firmware modification, so I can't pretend that this is not a problem and we can hope for a better tomorrow. I sure want to keep my customer with our products as long as possible, but I can't do this by maintaining a false hope.

Cayin has a good record in follow up and improve our products, we might be a bit slow but we won't ignore our customers and come out with a i5v2 within months.

 
Thanks for the reply @Andykong! I'm planning to hold onto my i5 even after getting a new DAP because of the difference in sig and amp power. I can live with those complaints I mentioned, I just hope more firmware optimizations will follow from here. At least please try to upgrade the OS or if not, just more optimizations for speed and processing. Thanks again for Cayin's dedication to bring us a wonderful experience from this DAP! 

 

[Andykong]

Does anyone experience laggy UI? Especially operations during music playing? I found it extremely annoying. I tried to turn off the device while the music was playing, a dialog poped up and I hit the confirm button. Two hours later, when I tried to listen to it, it is still playing music and the dialog is still there, it did not register my touch input at all! I lost two hours of battery because of it. It is very inconvenient when flying from airport to airport when they ask you to turn off electronic devices. Cayin needs to fix it soon for Christmas traveling season.

To clarify the situation, are you referring to the following pop up dialog?



You are using the stock HiBy player with i5 or any third party applications?

 

[Septimus]

Hey Andy, I just wanted to tell you that I ordered an i5 yesterday and that your amazing support here in the forum was a huge point in the decision over the opus#1. More company's should have such great community communicators!
I'm really looking forward to get the package.

 

[Joseph Lin]

 

Does anyone experience laggy UI? Especially operations during music playing? I found it extremely annoying. I tried to turn off the device while the music was playing, a dialog poped up and I hit the confirm button. Two hours later, when I tried to listen to it, it is still playing music and the dialog is still there, it did not register my touch input at all! I lost two hours of battery because of it. It is very inconvenient when flying from airport to airport when they ask you to turn off electronic devices. Cayin needs to fix it soon for Christmas traveling season.

To clarify the situation, are you referring to the following pop up dialog?



You are using the stock HiBy player with i5 or any third party applications?

Update:
Sorry, it is the screen after this screen. I just went through the whole process again. It will pop up a confirmation dialog. When music is playing, it usually will take a few tries for the device to take the input.
 
I do not know what is HiBy player, I use the music player comes with the i5.
 
If you tune EQ during music playback, sometimes it becomes unresponsive for a few seconds. Sometimes the Android dialog will pop up telling me the app is not responding and offer me to close the app. I always deny closing the app and wait a few more seconds for the player to "come back". During the whole process, the music is still playing.

 

[wirefriend]

My i5 review:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/cayin-i5/reviews/17416

 

[smy1]

I am looking to upgrade my fiio x5 2nd gen would the cayin i5 be a good choice? Its either the i5, fiio x7, onkyo dxp 1. I just wish the i5 has a 2.5m for my roxanne.

 

[pr0b3r]

I am looking to upgrade my fiio x5 2nd gen would the cayin i5 be a good choice? Its either the i5, fiio x7, onkyo dxp 1. I just wish the i5 has a 2.5m for my roxanne.

 
I swapped my i5 to my friend's x5ii for about a week and I easily missed having my i5 back.  I mean, yes, the i5's signature is really for me.  The x5ii sounded a bit grainy and bright, tends to lack in bass for neutral to bright IEMs and headphones.  I was craving for the i5's bass slam for a week.  Though the x5ii wasn't all that bad.  It just wasn't for me and my tastes.  You'll also get plenty of advantages on i5 over the x5ii.  There's the fast music scanning compared to x5ii's slower process, wifi and bluetooth from i5, aesthetically better with a dedicated volume pot, better decoding of higher music formats (DSD in ISO, DSF, and DFF).  This is just to name a few.  What I liked with the x5ii is the dual sd slot versus i5's single slot.

 

[pr0b3r]

BTW, I found this site just now, selling the same coaxial cable from Taobao (probably the same seller).  Not sure if this has been mentioned here in the previous pages.  I absolutely have no idea if this online store is legit or not.  So please proceed with caution.  There's an option to deliver to different countries if you click the text immediately to the right of "Shipping cost."  There are also different options to choose from for which kind of termination you need.  Just click the drop-down option for "Color classification."

I hope someone here can shed light as to whether this site is legit or not.
 
Yoycart.com http://www.yoycart.com/Product/39551072458/